The Joker Was Once An Ace
by ZamShazam1995
Summary: A story about the Joker before he became Batman's nemesis. His family was killed and now he only loves one person, his best friend Jess. How will he get his scars and end up loosing everything as well?
1. Clubs

I caught the snowflake with my tongue as my father has always taught me to do. He once said that if I closed my eyes and opened my mouth real wide, that the angels would place one right in my mouth. I had been so young, so innocent.

I had taken a great deal of things from my father. He often came to the dinner table with our family donning a bright purple robe that was fashioned to look like a suit. He would sit and casually look at me and pretend nothing was amiss, and we would both snicker until my mother would emerge from the kitchen with our dinner. She would look at him and say "Donald! Why are you wearing that stupid suit again?"

We would laugh just my father and me, my sister and mother always shook their heads and ate their dinner. But my dad and me, we got the joke. They were too serious to understand.

As I stood in the snow I wondered how things had ever changed from when I was younger. I was now seventeen.

_His blood dripped onto the floor next to me, his mouth slit, ear to ear. Gunshots rang in my ears and the smell of fear lingered in the air. Screams could be heard from the kitchen. Elizabeth was dead beside me. Her eyes were dull and frozen in a lifeless stare, transfixed with me. I lay in between my father and sister. I heard my mother fall to the kitchen floor and the robbers took their loot and left. I lay, in a house of death. The only one alive. The only card left to be played. _

"Ace?" Jess stepped behind me. My ears were still ringing from the gunshots left fired, years ago. The gunpowder filled my nostrils as they always did when my mind drifted back to the events of that day.

"I'm here." I said as I stuffed my hands back in my pockets and turned toward her. She looked at me and knew where my mind had gone. She was not there for that day. Only I had been. I had to dig out of my own grave.

"Do you want to go get something? Maybe a drink somewhere?" She looked at me inquisitively. I knew she had on her 'red dress' under her heavy coat, I nodded. I pulled the hood up on my jacket and let her lead me to the dark streets of Gotham. She pulled me into a familiar club. The lights were dimmed and playing loud, thumping music as she led me to one of her private tables behind a large curtain. She shrugged her coat off revealing a short schoolgirl outfit. She looked so small in the cheap lighting in the club.

"I have to go do my act. But I'll be back okay?" She eyed me as I took off my coat and laid it next to me on the booth. I nodded and flagged down a waitress. She kept looking at me while the waitress went to get me a drink.

She bent down over the table and lifted up my chin. "Hey, why so serious?" She smiled and I managed a small grin. She kissed my cheek and left to go do her show.

The waitress brought me a few shots while I watched Jess's show. Jess had lived a hard life, like me. She had been raped by her father while her mother laughed. After they had left, my dad and I had heard the screams and found her bleeding on the floor. My father took care of her while she cried in his arms. Once she had been reduced to only sniffles, he had tilted up her chin and asked her "Why so serious?" And then he giggled and she smiled for the first time.

She had come to live with us until my family died when we were twelve. Since then, we had been on our own. We had lived in random abandoned buildings in the beginning. My favorite was the old joke store. It reminded me of my father's corny jokes. We stayed there most nights together, except when she was working. She had a steady job here at the club. I couldn't get a job; I wasn't much of a dancer. Ha-ha. I had taken to just robbing a few stores. Usually I didn't get less then a few grand.

"Hey there Ace." Jason, Jess's boss, sat down next to me.

"Hey Jason." He was about twenty five or so, about 6'2. He kept her safe when I couldn't. I owed him for that.

"Jess is working a gig for me tonight." He looked at me. "I'll make sure she gets home to you." He looked at me, then back up to her on stage.

"Okay." Jason thought we were a couple. I liked him thinking that, so he knew that there was someone waiting for her to get home. However I have no idea what he thought of me, letting her sell herself the way she did.

"Tell her I went for a walk." I smiled and got up from the booth and walked out of the club. I walked a few miles in the damp snow while realizing I had left my jacket in the club.

_I heard a knock on the door. I went to answer it but I was afraid. The day before I had seen a poor boy's parents get killed outside the opera house. A mugger tried to get the wife's jewelry and the husband tried to protect her. The mugger shot them both and ran. The mother was able to utter her sons' name, Bruce, before she collapsed onto her husband. I wanted to help the poor kid as he hovered over them and cried. He shook them and tried to wake them, but I knew it was no use. _

_My father came up to me and answered the door for me. I heard the gunshots, but it was already too late. My mind couldn't comprehend what had happened so I started thinking it had been a knock-knock joke. Knock-knock. Who's there? Boom. I guess he didn't get the joke. _

I guess he didn't get the joke. 


	2. Hearts

**Authors Note:**

**Okay, I am extremely excited with this story and I hope you are too. I am currently working on three stories so I might take a few days to update. Part of this chapter was extremely difficult to write about because it is partially based on a real event. Please review and let me know how I did with it!**

* * *

There was a heist. I had been planning it for months. Jess didn't know about it. I didn't want her being dragged into more of my crime. She hated me stealing petty things normally. Ever since we met that day when my father and I saved her, I've felt protective over her.

I sat in our warehouse and bounced a ball off the wall beside me. I caught it and threw it back. It felt like I was playing catch with my old man.

I licked my lips and threw the ball back and caught it once more. I heard a crash outside. I jumped up, fearing Jess was getting hurt. The door burst open and Jason carried her inside. She was slumped on his shoulder, I could see blood but I didn't know where it was coming from.

"She was turning a trick." He laid her down on the table in front of us. "When the guy left, I went to check on her. She was like this."

Her clothes had been torn and there were angry cuts down her chest and stomach. Her face was bruised and her mouth was dripping. I slammed my fist on the table.

"What was his name?" I asked Jason.

"I- I don't know!" He stammered. "He took everything she had! She had a whole month's paycheck!" I looked at his worried face and punched him. He went sprawling on the floor.

"That is what you care about? You selfish pig!" I screamed at him. "Look at her! This is your fault!" I pointed at the unconscious form on the table.

"Hey! I don't send her out there every night, letting strange guys have their way with her! You were supposed to so something!" He got up and walked out, slamming the door behind him.

"I'm sorry Jess; I should have never let that happen to you." She stirred and her eyelids fluttered as I crouched down to touch her bruised face.

"Ace, it hurts so much." I saw tears drip down her face. "My dad- I- it hurts." I looked down to her abdomen and saw a pool of red on her skirt. He must have raped her.

_Dad and I were walking down the road in the evening one summer night when we heard screams coming from the house next door. We waited until the screams died down and a couple walked out of the house, laughing, with their suitcases. They got in the car and drove away. The loud cries from inside continued. My father and I crept up to the door and pushed it open, _

_"Hello?" My father called out. The whimpering came from the kitchen. I folowed him until we reached a dimmly lit room. There was a girl about my age on the floor. There was blood around her and her clothes were thrown around the room. She looked up at my father and I with such fearful eyes. My father told me to find a towel and a bucket of water. By the time I returned, the girl was wrapped in his jacket and crying in his lap. He spoke to her in a soothing voice and helped clean her up. _

That was a sight I never thought I would relive again.

"That bastard. I'll kill him I swear." I tried to stop my hands from shaking with rage as I pulled her up and held her as close as I could to me.

"No, Ace, don't" She said through gritted teeth. "It's not worth it." Her head slumped on my shoulder and she shivered on my chest. I picked her up with ease and carried her to the bathroom. Her eyes were closed again as I placed her on the cold floor and filled up the tub.

"It's okay. I'm here." I said as I helped her out of her clothes. Naked, she looked so small and defenseless. What kind of monster would do this?

I placed her small frame in the warm water as her eyes fluttered open again. She reached out for me and shivered as the bath water turned red.

"Ace?" She asked me, sinking into the water, but still holding my hand.

"Yes?" I replied trying not to look at the bloody cuts and bruises on her. They were so awful.

"Don't ever leave me." She said quietly as she drifted into unconsciousness from the pain.

"I won't." I said as I clutched her hand.


	3. Diamonds

With Jess sick, I was the only one bringing in a paycheck. I needed to get some serious money, and fast. The only thing that I knew would be able to support us would be the Gotham Diamond. It was kept in the museum on the edge of town. I had heard of a few yuppies that had tried to steal it before, but hadn't gotten anywhere.

The Diamond was surrounded by a field of lasers and bullet-proof glass. I didn't want to go for it. I had never stolen something so big. But I knew that Jess and I needed it. Besides, who was it helping sitting there covered in dust?

"_Daddy?" I tugged on my father's purple sleeve. "What's that?" He looked down at me and smiled as he ruffled my hair._

"_That's the Gotham Diamond." He leaned in real close to me as other people crowded in to look at the rock. "Wouldn't it be funny if someone stole it and all these people ended up looking at a piece of cardboard?" _

_I smiled and held onto his had as we made our way back to the dinosaur exhibit. _

I buried my head in my hands. The plans for the museum floated off my desk as I thought about that day again. I had made a vow that day that I would find the men who killed my family and make them pay.

Even after all these years I still could not get the images of my family's dead faces out of my mind. They were permanently seared into my mind. Like a photograph that you see whenever you close your eyes.

_After about a half hour after the robbers left, I got up. My hands were tied behind my back and there was blood on my chest. There was blood everywhere. Almost mechanically I walked into the kitchen, avoiding my mother's fallen corpse and cut my hands free on the corner of the oven door. _

_I looked down at her, sprawled on the floor. Why would someone do this? Simply just because they wanted to tear the world apart? It is an interesting idea. I stepped over her body and made my way to the other bodies of my family. _

_Elizabeth looked the saddest of the three. Her eyes were open and her mouth was in a grimace. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the sharpest knife I could find. When I ran back, I lifted her head up and sliced her mouth up to both ears and set her back down. I positioned her to look at my father, both with their permanent smiles. _

I grabbed the plans up and knew what I had to do. I zipped up my black hoodie and ran my fingers through my long, black hair. I grabbed my butterfly knife and put it in my pocket. I tucked a revolver into the waistband of my jeans and walked over to Jess. She was curled into a ball on our air mattress. Her eyebrows were knitted together in fear from whatever nightmare she was having.

"I'm doing this for us." I whispered in her ear before kissing her cheek.

I walked into the cold night and jumped into a black car I had managed to steal a few weeks ago. The drive to the museum was short and quiet as I formulated a plan in my head.

I parked the car out in the back and climbed up on the roof until I found a vent access. I crawled along each room until I reached the Gotham Diamond room. I dropped in silently and saw the lasers immediately. Being a thin guy, I could easily maneuver around them. The trick was getting out the diamond.

I took my revolver out and shot at the glass. Surprisingly, it broke. I guess Gotham security was lacking these days I thought bitterly. I grabbed the huge diamond and put it in my jacket pocket. Before I turned to go, I looked down at the spot where my father and I had stood, looking at the very same diamond years before. I guess it was a little funny.

"Hey you!" I heard a voice yell at me. It was the night security guard. Before he could react, I cocked my revolver and pulled the trigger. He gasped and fell to the ground. I ran over.

"Shht shht, it's okay." I held the man in my arms for a moment before taking out my butterfly knife. He looked so sad, like how my sister looked. He would appreciate me if I at least made him die happy. I cut two lines along the side of his mouth up to each ear.

"There." I said, looking at my art. "At least you died smiling."


	4. Spades

Jess had an infection. Whatever that guy did to her, he ripped her up inside. When I got back to the warehouse, she was on the air mattress with the blankets pulled up to her chin, shivering.

"Jess?" I asked as I walked through the door. I put my jacket down on the table and peered through one of the windows. There were helicopters with spotlights over Gotham Museum.

I saw her laying down as I walked over. She was shivering and her face was a eerie white.

"Are you okay?" I knelt down over her and felt her forehead. She was burning up.

"Ace?" She looked up toward me and managed a smile. "I'm fine. Just sore." She tried to sit up.

"Don't play tough with me." I sat down next to her as she struggled. "You're sick." I frowned as she lay back down. The sheets were bloody again.

"Jason dropped off you something." She nodded to a box on the table. I hesitantly moved from her. To look at it.

"I told him that if I died, you would need it." She coughed and shivered.

_I'm sorry about Jess, for some reason she wants you to have this. I had to get it custom made. Please don't let her die. _

"Don't talk like that." I said to her as I put down the letter. "You're not going to die." I looked down at her again. The sheets were still so bloody; it had been a week since what happened. She wasn't supposed to be this weak.

"Ace, look at me." She said softly. "My body is shutting down on me." She moved the covers to show her body with all the unclosed cuts and black bruises.

"No, stop it! I will not let you die!" I yelled and fell to my knees. "Jess, you're all I have." She stroked my hair.

"I love you Ace." She looked up at me. "I always have and I always will."

I looked up at her, she was so fragile, yet so strong inside. Her blonde hair fanned over the pillow as she stared at me with twinkling eyes.

"I love you too Jess." I held my hand to her face and her eyes closed. I kissed her for the first time. Her lips were warm, they felt so alive. She cupped my head with her shaking hands.

I awoke early and rolled over to Jess.

"Hey baby." I said to her. She was curled up next to me. She didn't respond. I put my hand on her. She was cold.

"No." I muttered and I shook her. "Jess wake up. Wake up. Come on baby, I can't live without you!"

She never woke up.

* * *

I carried her body outside the warehouse by the river. We had spent nights watching the sunset and skipping rocks. I grabbed a spade from someone's lawn and dug a hole for her.

I carried her body outside and stood over her. She looked so sad. I wanted to make her look happy, like the Jess I had known. I took out my knife and cut her cheeks up to each ear.

I stood up admiring my Jess. She looked so happy. I put her delecatly in the hole blew her a kiss.

* * *

I sat at the table, half through a bottle of Jack. I opened the purple box from Jess. Inside was a purple suit, just like the robe my father wore. I came with a green undershirt and a blue tie. It reminded me of the clowns I used to see with my dad when he took me to the circus.

_The clowns on the unicycles were my favorite. They were so funny! The way that they could defy all laws of logic and be ridiculous and everyone would love them!_

"_See that one over there?" My dad pointed to one on the side of the lion's cage. He was smiling a broad smile and wearing a bright purple suit. "He stole my robe!" _

_We laughed and poked each other when one of the clowns made a corny joke. Even days after the circus, when I repeated one of the jokes to my father, he would laugh with me and pat my head._

Maybe I just liked making people smile.


	5. Queens

I lay on the base of the river. The water lapped at my feet, seeming to taunt me. I looked out at the horizon, so vast. I wanted to know who did this to her. What sick sadistic person would hurt her like that?

"_Ace, the funniest joke isn't something that someone expects. It's one that hurts a little bit, but provides its own humor. It is to show people how wrong the world is, but also to shed light of the beautiful ways to look at it. It points out someone's flaws for the sake of helping them get better." He hovered over me. _

"_And sometimes the best joke is just funny to you. It points out everything wrong inside people. But not necessarily to help them. It is more to let people know that no matter how angelic they think they are, they all have a little joker inside them."_

Maybe this guy hadn't been so sick and sadistic after all.

* * *

I sat in Jess's private booth in the club again. The dancer onstage was dancing to some old Queen song. I bitterly drank while thinking about what had happened. Maybe he just wanted to watch and see what happened when he ruined someone's world. Maybe that was what the people who killed my parents thought. Maybe they wanted to show me that, when reduced to nothing, people will turn.

_I sat on his lap and smiled at him while we watched a horror movie one late evening. _

"_You know," He paused the movie. "Look at how that girl begs when how in the beginning she seemed so strong. I guess, in the end, people show who they really are. So that means that the killer knows her better than any of her longest friends." _

I just wanted to watch the world burn.

* * *

**Author's Note: **

**Sorry this chapter was so short but I really needed to get it done! I am going out of town on the 27th to the 7th so dont expect to hear from me. Make sure to check out my other stories! I just updated!**


	6. Author's Note

**Author's Note:**

**Okay, so last night I was at the Dark Knight Rises premiere. I was the best night of my life until I heard the news from Colorado.**

**A man named James Holmes open fired in a midnight showing in Colorado.**

**Fourteen people were killed and 50 were injured. It is now being classified as the largest shooting in American history.**

**I will not update this story for the time being until I come back from my vacation on the 8th. Partly because I will be gone and partly because it is my own little moment of silence for the victims. I would recommend everyone to show support for the families and victims of this shooting and help out in any way you can.**


	7. Kings

The door swung open easily. People should really start locking their doors, especially at night. Gotham isn't exactly the safest town, after all. I heard grunting from the room at the end of the hall. I believe it is safe to say that our little friend has another guest. Light peeked out from under the door as I heard more grunting and a whimper. I walked up to the door and opened it swiftly.

"What? Who are-"

"Go home, I'll deal with you in a minute." I waved my knife at the poor girl pinned down by the fat man. She ran as soon as the man moved an inch to meet me. She flew out the door and left us alone. He turned on his back and stared up at me. He looked like he he thought he was a king. That no one could touch him, or pull him from his throne.

"Who are you?" He asked. I jumped on top of him and straddled his rotund belly.

"My name is Ace, so sorry, I seem to have forgotten to address myself. And your name is?" I asked gliding my knife up his chin.

"H-Henry." He stammered.

"Well Henry," I licked my lips, "Do you know why I am here?"

"N-No." He shut his eyes as I glided the knife over the bridge of his nose.

"You see, I loved this girl, and one night she came to me bleeding, and hurt." I looked deep in his eyes. "She died because you could not control your animalistic urges." I smiled giddily down at him. "And now I'm going to kill you!" His eyes widened in terror.

"Oh but don't worry, I won't kill you the way you killed her. I'm going to give you something to be happy about!" I glided, the knife along his jaw and lips. "Tell me, do you like clowns?"

He shook his head feverishly.

"That's too bad. I love clowns. They are always so funny!" I laughed. "They always know how to make me…" I slit his mouth upward on both sides as he screamed. His blood squirted out and I looked down at his bloody form. I plunged the knife in his neck, so he would die, slowly.

"Smile."


	8. Ace

It felt so good. The warm bloody revenge that poured through my fingers. Jess did not die in vain. The world will never know of her murder, but her killer will be televised, made out to look like a victim. But after a few days they too will get bored. No one seems to care when someone slimy turns up dead, what would happen if someone important died?

The docks were climbing with mob members recently. They used to be in the middle of the city, but after a few brushes with a new vigilante they stayed safer.

The Batman was what everyone called him. Apparently he was some strange crime-fighting superhero. Well where was he when Jess was being killed? He fought for the schemers. He fought for the corrupt government. Not for justice, for personal gain.

I pulled up to the warehouse on the south side of the Gotham Docks. I saw a few lights on inside. The mobsters were having a meeting, I could tell. So pathetic, these criminals have no guts.

The guard informed me that the two men I was looking for were inside. I drew my gun and stepped inside.

Six mobsters put their hands up as I walked in.

"That's good," I licked my lips. "I'm looking for James Holdin and Kane Baker." Two mobsters at the end looked at one another.

"Ah, I see." I walked over and forced them up and out of the door. "Do you remember me? I know it has been a while." They looked feverishly around to their mob buddies, no one made a move to help them.

"Well I'll give you a hint." I smiled wide enough so they could see my gums.

I licked my lips and hovered over one of the two men. This one had a desperate look in his eyes. I knew he would give me anything for his life. He doesn't have anything I want. The other one, however, is much more interesting. He looks at me with anger and vengeance. He thinks he doesn't deserve what he is getting.

"You see," I stood up straight, "when I was younger, some evil men broke into my family's house. They killed me father, mother, and sister. And they carved smiles on their faces, so they would be eternally happy." The angry one's face registers shock and fear. The desperate one kept shaking his head, as if he was never there.

"I am just finishing what they started." I knelt down to the defiant one and removed my knife from its sheath in my jacket.

"You are a cowa-" I cut him off by cutting his cheeks upward. He looked at me, bleeding out.

"What was that?" I smiled and finished him. I crossed to the other one. "Anything to say?" I asked.

"I didn't do nothing! I swear!" I cut him up before he could spit out another word. The pain registers on his face before I slit his throat. The blood poured out on my hands and on my shoes.

I smiled.


	9. Joker

I took my lucky knife from its sheath in my jacket and placed it on the counter in the bathroom. I shed my coat and shirt, leaving only my pants on. On second thought, I decided to take them off as well.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I had just dyed my hair a seaweed green color. I knew it looked silly, but that was what I was going for. Clowns were always my favorite. And what else was better than a clown with green hair and a bright red smile?

Clowns were my father's favorite. He once told me that they were the most important people on the planet, because they can make almost anyone laugh.

My father eventually turned into a clown, with his slashed face entering into my mind every time I closed my eyes. He was funny, even in death. It was society that killed my father, not the two men. Society turned its back on the people like me, the low-life's and nobodies. The only people who mattered were the ones who pretended to work for the better.

Someone needs to show them what is really in front of their noses. I stand over the sink and take in my grimy surroundings. Everything was dull, and depressing. People only seem to care about the pristine things in life. I lick my lips and pick up the knife.

I trace my jawline on the glass, making a slight scratch into its hard surface. It screeched as I traced it along the outline of my lips.

I pull the knife up to my face. Some small voice seemed to shout in my head. I silenced it and became fully who I needed to be. I was not Ace anymore. I was Joker.

And I sliced up on both sides and smiled to myself. Every single tooth I had, and all my gums smiled back at me in the demonic reflection.

And in that moment, Ace left me.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

******I can't believe it's all over! This was so much fun to write and I hope you guys had as much fun reading it as I had writing it! Thank you everyone so much for reviewing and following! I want to especially thank PsychoSweetheart, Zeny, Applejax XD, and Norah Strike. Be sure to follow my other stories and look out for more Batman fics in the future!  
**

**Buh-Bye for now my little Jokers!  
**


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